The previous night...

As Javert sat upon the edge of his guest room's bed, he realised something; He had completely gone out of his depth.

It was a rare thing for Javert to admit such a thing, for a man as he was always prepared. Yet as he sat upon the bed, staring at his hands. He became aware. He became accepting of the fact this was out of his comfort zone, completely and utterly beyond him and the most frightening part was the fact that he enjoyed it, the feeling that something so strange and new, for the better?

He was on old man, or at least - He began to feel like it. His age, his manner...Surely a woman such as Marianne couldn't even consider something between the pair of them?, it was absurd for even him to consider it- Both of them had completely different social standings, both the same in a sense of birth. Yet both so different in their lives. He, a man of the law. She, a woman of the streets. Yet his mind couldn't help but wonder and guess, what if things changed? what if things developed more...But the back of his head, the reason in everything and the overall clear view of his mind knew he was wrong. Why waste his time thinking about things that have never interested him before?

Men like him could never change.

A Star within the Barricade

Marianne woke rather late into the morning. She was ashamed of herself for being so lazy, even if she did feel fatigued, she was not in her own home. A fact which although considerate by Javert, troubled her. Thinking of Javert, she began to wonder where he was; she knew he had a job. Obviously, he was perhaps one of the most known Inspectors around where she lived, most people on the streets of Paris knew of Javert. Most openly feared him. It was as she moved the answer quite literally fell upon her leg. She looked down to see a Envelope on the bed, one which she had managed to crush a little with her leg. She pulled it up and opened the small envelope, inside was a small handwritten message;

I'll be away for a majority of the day; I have tried to provide things you will need in the room for easy access to them.

J.

As she looked around the room, on closer inspection she noticed that there was indeed many things; food, water, a small chamber pot and other various things. Marianne hated being bedridden, but as she tried to test sitting up again, she felt a familiar twinge of pain in her back and neck. It had seemed to tense up during a nights sleep, as ever with these types of injuries it took a time for the pain to reveal itself. It wasn't ideal. But Marianne knew that it was for the best, that Javert had indeed tried to get everything for her.

Unfortunately, as there was no one else around - And Marianne being the social type, the day was dragging. She killed some time by sleeping a little more, which was well received as she seemed fatigued. Although she hadn't moved, it was as if she had spent the whole day using her energy up, running around. It was as if she had spent another day running after Enjolras and Grantaire.

Minutes, ticking by ever so slowly that each felt like an hour, perhaps even more. Marianne looked down towards her hands, flexing them gently and staring as her fingers moved. Creeping, ticking by every second passed. She didn't know how long she had been sat in the bed for when the door opened.

Javert walked into the room, instantly catching her attention as his steps heavily thudded against the wooden floor beneath his boots. He stood tall in his usual uniform, his hat under his arm as he walked through and the door closed behind him. "Marianne." He nodded a little, looking towards her in the bed. He couldn't help but notice how pale she had become, also how frail she seemed in the center of the bed.

"Good evening, Javert." She tried to sit up, but her efforts were in vain. Luckily Javert walked straight over and assisted her up until she sat up properly. "Is that better?" his voice the same monotonous flat tone. "Yes, I've been quite lost without you." Marianne offered her usual kind hearted smile; which, she noted caused his lips, which were usually so straight, to curve ever so slightly. "Well, I'm back now at least." He cleared his throat. Standing in front of her for a moment as he looked around at the room - Everything other than the water being untouched. "You haven't eaten." He spoke discontently, his eyes hooding as the food remained untouched.

"I woke only a short while ago. I wasn't hungry." She tried to smile it off but Javert scowled. "You need to eat to stay healthy, do you want anything else?" He put his hat upon the end of the bed. Her eyes were instantly drawn towards it. In his uniform he was once again the inspector. The man who often persecuted those around her, sent even some of the children and friends she knew to jail. "I'm fine, honestly." Once again he refused her reply.

"I'll go get you something else; You must eat." His words had no hint of question. He was deadly serious, she believed he was almost commanding her to eat. "I need something to eat anyway, I might as well kill two birds with one stone and get something for us both." He stared towards Marianne for a long moment before he turned away and went off in the same direction as he once went in. Leaving Marianne alone, again.

She didn't wait long, well, by the standards of the day that had passed her wait was moderately short and she almost didn't feel it passing. As he stormed in again he held two plates and bowls which rested in the center of each. He placed them both upon the table before he went over to an oak wardrobe and removed his jacket. He was very precise in taking it off, placing it on a special hanger and then organizing it into a small area reserved for it. The hat, she had just became aware of was now placed upon the top of the wardrobe. He closed both the doors and then began to roll his sleeves up as he went back to the table which held the plates.

He sighed, taking them both in his hands and walking to the bed, placing the bowl upon Marianne's knee carefully. What was inside was a broth of some kind, still hot as it steamed rather heavily. "It is getting rather cold out..You need something hot." He coughed a little, looking towards his own plate for a moment. "I'll..." He began to walk off, to leave the room and allow her to eat on her own. Perhaps that was what he was used to. Eating alone. "No, sit beside me." Marianne smiled as she asked, having some company would be rather nice for a change. He turned towards her, looking confused as he stared at the place beside her. As if the idea was simply ludicrous. "We can talk about your day over dinner." She smiled, even going as far as tapping the bed beside her twice. He remained standing silently for a moment, his eyes and expression blank. He was pondering on what to do.

Eventually though, perhaps a moment later he thudded over to the bed, taking the place beside her rather awkwardly, so he sat but not that close to her. "You hardly have to act like that Monsieur, You have been far more personal to me than any man has before - There is no need for such silliness." She tapped the bed again, smiling. Casting her a slight scowl he did as she asked and came onto the bed more closer than he deemed to be polite. He was rigid and slightly tense at being so informal with a woman; He knew it was ridiculous considering he bathed her. But he couldn't help it.

"So, Monsieur, I mean, Javert, if you don't mind me asking - How was your day?" Marianne couldn't help but shuffle a little closer. Javert noticed and inched away very slightly. He was unused to being so intimate. He cleared his throat, glancing down to the floor for an awkward second before he dared to speak. "It was fine." His words were tense, to the point. Marianne scowled and began to eat her soup, after the first spoonful (Which she Mm'ed openly to, she also noticed Javert seemed to look rather closely to her lips as she did so.) She began to ask again. "No, surely there is something interesting that happened?" He looked down to her with softened eyes, no longer the hard stare she was used to. "I simply did my duty." He spoke in his same voice nonetheless.

"My, and here I thought you had a life of chases and mystery. The cunning inspector bringing the criminals to justice." She smiled up at him. His lips even showed signs of a slight twitch in the corner. "I'm afraid I must disappoint." He too began to eat his soup, glancing occasionally to Marianne to see if she was satisfied. He was happy to see her eat though, the sight of the food being untouched made him uncomfortable. He needed to know she had eaten. "There must be something you know!" She grinned up towards him, her eyes wide and dazzling. She had the most peculiar eyes. One moment green then in a change of fire light they seemed more blue. He wanted to indulge her but he didn't know where to begin - He had looked at his work as his duty, not something to be enjoyed or to be hated. It just was.

He bit the bullet and began to relax. "After your soup and I'll tell you everything I can." It was his way of getting something he wanted out of the deal; to make sure she finished her own meal completely before he would say a thing. It worked well, even resulting in him being able to encourage her to eat a little more over all. Marianne eventually caught what he was up to and put an end to his trick.

There they were, sat on the bed once again - with no things for Javert to distract himself with. "You made a promise, now tell me some of the more funny times." She lay down, her body so small in the bed she looked almost like a doll. He lay beside her, although he did lean up more to look down upon her easily. Marianne resembled a fallen angel in his eyes, so soft and gentle beside him - Her hair out around her and a few strands coming over her face. He pushed some out of her eye before he spoke. As his hand touched her soft cheek he bit back his urge to linger on her skin. Pushing the hair back he placed his hand back upon his knee as it was before. Almost regretting his dare to touch her as he now longed to do it again.

Perhaps to his surprise was when she placed her own hand; so small and dainty in comparison, over his own. "You said you'd tell me!" She smiled up like an enthusiastic child and he couldn't deny her. "When I was first starting out, the first man I had to deal with properly whilst I was patrolling the streets was rather drunk..It was an interesting moment as every time I tried to arrest him he'd run off, of course..not properly running as he was so intoxicated it was more a stumble. But he sang merrily as he did. It was very funny to witness." He smirked a little.

"Although perhaps the best was two rather disgusting inn keepers, they conned the residents during their stay, but the way they did it was almost like a play to watch. Both of them working around each other shamelessly, the wife would even make up remarks about her husband in front of him as a way of distracting the gentlemen in the inn, but all things aside they are perhaps the lowest of the low in society, Marianne." His voice lost any edge of calm, comical humor and took on a familiar rough edge. "They have no sign of repentance for their actions; they are ruled by greed and don't even care about their own daughter." He looked down to his hands again and Marianne frowned. "Poor girl she is, walks around on the streets like a lost pup most of the time. She seems to be trailing behind some school boy." He waved his hand dismissively and Marianne practically gasped. "You don't mean Éponine Thénardier?"

Javert nodded once and Marianne couldn't help but gasp. "My god I know her, poor soul trails after Marius and he doesn't seem to notice one bit. I only know from my job at the Café of course." She smiled slightly whilst Javert went silent. Thoughts of those school boys and their foolish plans made him cold. He didn't like to think of Marianne as being mixed up with it all - It was a dangerous mix.

"Of course." He coughed a little, looking down to the floor. Marianne bit down on her lip, He had gone rigid under her very fingers. "It is a new world that they speak of; a tomorrow for the people, you know?" She offered a smile but he didn't know how to take her words. "Most of us, we were raised and only have known poverty. We all just want a chance to be equal, not just the beggars of Paris." She smiled once more and Javert sympathized with her plight. To want to be greater than what you were born with. Not to be defined by your past. "I can understand that, Marianne. But it is a dangerous game they play."

"I know, but they are so dedicated. Enjolras is an inspiration, his words match our dreams and he is able to weave it into a vision of a possible future. A vision of the people being united in one force; to have a better way of life, no longer a slave, an equal." She sighed as she spoke. Javert meanwhile tried to process the information...one side this was against everything he believed in, but he related with the urge to escape the gutter. To follow a better cause.

"I was born this way.." She smiled down at her small hands. Pulling it away from his and making him ache for it to return there. "My family have known nothing but poverty. My mother she...she did her best for us." She didn't pull her gaze from her hands. "She used to work in a small factory but things didn't work well, my father was an alcoholic and the funds didn't spread very far with his taste for the wine. It led to him being arrested for a fight in a local inn somewhere; My mother was distraught, love seems to blind people to their love's faults. It ripped her apart and led her to just crumble in the end. He was her support and without him she simply fell. In the end she lost her job. One thing led to another and she found 'other' ways of getting the money. I was only young, perhaps about seven at this time. I tried to stop her once I learned. Once I saw her getting beaten by a customer...It didn't work; in the end it destroyed her and our remaining family. Since I was Eleven I have been alone." She looked towards Javert, who simply stared down towards her. "Of course, it is not all bad. Maurice, bless his soul was a god send, letting me do little jobs here and there and finding me some factory work until I eventually returned to work in his Café."

"Do you hate your parents for what they become?" He looked down at her, wondering if she related.

"Sometimes." She smiled gently. "I was a child, all I saw was my parents doing the wrong things, my father being a selfish man. My mother losing all of her pride and self respect to be something most people wouldn't spit upon." She rubbed her hands together with a shaky sigh. "But they were my family, she did it partly to pay for my life. Her customers were who I hated, when they saw me as a young child they would say crude things, Things I didn't understand at the time of course. When I was Ten things got worse; they got more...grabby. It was then I made my plans to leave, when I was Eleven I was hit for the last time and I ran away." She began to tremble a little, staring down at her hands once more. He felt himself go rigid. Men of that kind disgusted him thoroughly, not only had he had to deal with it as a child himself; but she too was effected.

He felt something inside him shift. He moved his arm timidly from his side, slowly pulling her as she trembled into his arm and into his side. She sniffled and eventually settled against his side. Javert wasn't sure if he could do this himself. It was too close to his own past. He rubbed her arm gently. "I'm sorry. You must think it so improper of me. Being so personal like this.." She placed her hand to her eye, wiping away a small tear.

"It is okay." He looked upwards for a moment. Gaining his composure, he was strangely effected by her own upset, seeing her so saddened made him feel a pang in his chest. Her words, so close to his own experiences. Raised as an innocent child and exposed to the horrors of the streets so early, seeing the worst in man before they would even understand it. He rubbed her arm gently. She stirred against him a little more, looking up with wide, tear rimmed eyes. "Thank-you." She smiled softly as she spoke. "What for?" He frowned. He had just unintentionally brought up things that upset her; Yet she thanked him.

"For listening, for understanding and comforting me. You, other than Maurice, are the only one who knows. Only one I told." She looked down to the bed, avoiding eye contact with him. It was a small gesture - Yet knowing she trusted him to confide in him was strangely moving. "I can understand why you would be so supportive of a new tomorrow." He spoke softly and Marianne laughed a little; such a sweet laugh for a slightly bitter meaning. "So true, Javert. It gives us all hope. A reason to go on with our miserable lives, as the stars it is a light in the darkness. Hope." She smiled up towards him and once again he felt himself shift again. This woman changed him so over the course of little more than two days. Such little things she said seemed to affect him greatly, to change his views.

Where he never sympathized with those below - he now saw why they would do this. Saw their hope. Understood it.

Once they finished speaking, their conversations turned to something a lot lighter. Marianne had pointed out his books, he couldn't help but laugh a little. It was a strange origins. As a child he had been practically illiterate. As he grew he had developed a thirst for knowledge. He had learned to read slowly, painstakingly so, and once he was adequate - He hadn't been able to stop reading. One book which she seemed to notice most was Pride and Prejudice

He took the novel in his hands with a slight smile. Looking down to it in his hands. As he opened the book, he noticed she squinted a little at the pages. It didn't take long for him to guess she too was perhaps a very poor reader; if she read at all. He didn't point it out, but rather began to read it to her. He perhaps hoped she wouldn't realize he had noticed.. It seemed that she didn't as he began to read.

"IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife..."

The story wasn't particularly long, but it wasn't a short novella either. Page after page he read to her and she managed to have ended up in the position of leaning upon his arm and her head resting just level with his shoulder. He didn't complain; he had grown strangely fond to her lying so close beside him. The warmth of her body being pleasant to feel and her skin soft to touch.

As he read to her, she sighed and laughed along with each page. Her laugh was so sweet when it was pure and humored. Such a delightful sound he was surprised that he wanted to hear it again, it was as if something more had changed in him; She had become increasingly something of a fixation to him. So soft and gentle, kind and sweet. Perhaps an angel from god himself. As the time went on, he began to finish reading.

It came as little surprise that she had fallen asleep by then, but perhaps what surprised him the most was that she had became rather attached to him in the way she fell asleep, wrapped delicately against his arm. She looked so beautiful as she slept it pained him to move. The contact between them both was also a strong thing in keeping him there. He wanted to simply slip beside her and bury his face gently into her hair, to sleep beside her as gently as she slept upon him...

His mind seemed to trigger into a worried mode; Why was he feeling this way, this urge to be so close to a woman?

He never had this feeling of neediness before, or this urge to protect. He had never wanted to shelter someone and keep someone safe as he had with Marianne, other times it was his duty; as was this. Yet as he looked down as she slept he felt his insides simply change. It was no longer for duty but for personal gain. For him to be able to keep her company. He has never doubted his life before. Everything had been as it was supposed to be. But his mind wandered to further reasons; had he been lonely all this time, his job a distraction to his own need to find someone like him - who understood him?

Could this be Marianne? All questions his mind pushing as they were asked and begged for an answer to. He was lost again and confused. But he didn't care for it all seemed right; at the expense of what used to be right being all completely wrong. His life and values, all set in stone had began to crumble and change. Is this woman from heaven or was she a path to sin? a temptation and a test? Or was she simply sent to be his salvation? As easily as she could save him from his solitude, she could just as easily destroy him.

He was vulnerable and he hated it. But he didn't mind, either. For once in his life Javert simply embraced what was before him. For once he accepted that she was capable of things he couldn't control. As he looked down upon the ever trusting Marianne, he felt himself change. A Man who he thought could never change was changing - He was even aware of it. So much change in such a short moment of time. He couldn't help but wonder what it would be, all of his novels seemed to point in one direction, one which mirrored the wishes in his not-so stone heart, leaving him with one scary and unanswered question to himself...

Can people really fall in love this fast?

I hope it isn't too quickly to be making feelings announced, or suspected...Some awkward lyric references from the Musical in the Chapters popping up :)

Then again, It isn't that bad compared to the "Love at first sight" of Marius and Cosette of course - But Javert needs a little bit more encouragement. Don't worry there will be more development than this, it's just Javert over thinking and finding a root cause for his change of heart.

Thank-you for your reviews + that you're even reading. It all means a lot!

Jenny xx